PPP transparency and governance on the African Continent

Within the first 100 days of his administration, President Muhammadu Buhari signaled his administration’s commitment to attracting the private capital and expertise needed to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit. This led to a renewed engagement between the World Bank Group and Nigeria to enhance the attractiveness of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) ecosystem in the country.

One major PPP transparency initiative is the study conducted by the World Bank Group’s PPP team between September 2016 and April 2017 using the Framework for Disclosure in PPPs. The team came up with a PPP Disclosure Diagnostic Report for Nigeria that examined the political, legal, and institutional environment for disclosure of PPPs.

Based on this, the report made specific recommendations to improve disclosure in Nigeria: create an enhanced framework for disclosure of PPPs applicable to all federal government PPP contracts, and move toward greater transparency and openness in all areas of governance in Nigeria. It was noted that PPPs are proven mechanisms to enhance the efficiency of service delivery when implemented in line with best practices ; PPPs also foster transparency and can be used to eliminate corruption.

An initiative that fulfills many of these recommendations will be launched on September 22, 2017, by Nigeria’s Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo: the ICRC PPP Contracts Disclosure Web Portal. The launch will be attended by high-level government officials and other members of the government, World Bank Group representatives, private sector executives, financiers, development partners, and civil society organizations.

The portal helps fulfill President Buhari’s goals of fostering transparency and accountability in PPPs in order to attract the much-needed foreign capital and expertise to scale up Nigeria’s infrastructure through PPPs and promote sustainable growth and development.

It also supports a recent Presidential executive order directing all ministries, departments, and agencies to develop policies to ease doing business in Nigeria, including extensive disclosure requirements. The project was designed and funded with assistance from the World Bank Group.

Under the World Bank PPP Global Disclosure initiative, Nigeria is blazing the trail by being the first country to launch this unique and strategically important PPP disclosure web portal.